BackBSNL said to target Rs500-crore revenue by utilizing land bank in FY16
It's planning to enter into intra-circle roaming pacts with other operators to monetise its network of over 75,000 base tower stations
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New Delhi: State-run BSNL is targeting a revenue of ₹ 500 crore in the current financial year by utilizing its land bank. Besides, the telecom operator is also looking at revenue gains from monetisation of 75,000 towers, training centre and seven telecom factories.
BSNL has set a target of generating ₹ 500 crore revenue from utilizing land bank, although the estimates for revenue realisation from other initiatives could not be ascertained. The company is planning to enter into intra-circle roaming pacts with other operators to monetise its network of over 75,000 base tower stations (BTS) or mobile towers.
According to sources, BSNL officials gave a presentation to telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently, which highlighted the company’s turnaround plan. BSNL, which has got 82 land parcels, will also be augmenting its GSM mobile capacity in the current fiscal.
The operator is planning about 14,736 2G and 10,914 3G base tower stations in 2015-16. Apart from that, it will be integrating its wi-fi hotspot and LTE (4G) with the existing GSM network. Telecom minister Prasad had asked BSNL to improve quality of services, especially in border and extremist-affected areas, in a bid to become market leader and win back people’s confidence.
The minister said that the government is committed to revive BSNL and a number of initiatives are in the pipeline to bring the PSU back to the position of market leader. Prasad is also undertaking a series of meetings with MPs to make telecom officials directly answerable to Parliamentary representatives so as to have a first-hand account of public sectors’ performance, problems faced and possible solutions.
Prasad has directed DoT to call five such meetings so that all Members of Parliament are given opportunity to raise issues directly with concerned officials. BSNL’s profits started declining from ₹ 10,183 crore in 2004-05 before recording a loss in 2009-10.
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